Many virtual environments and/or online games, provide users the opportunity and ability to make purchases of virtual items for use within the online game using real money, or virtual currency obtained with real money. Revenue may be generated for the operator of the virtual environment and/or online game through the purchase of virtual items by the users of the virtual environment and/or online game through a game shop, or virtual market place associated with the virtual environment and/or online game.
In some systems, the user cost associated with the virtual items has previously been set by administrators of the online game and users may purchase the virtual items at that administrator-set user cost. By setting a fixed user cost associated with the virtual items the operators of the online games fail to take advantage of the natural supply and demand economic system that occurs outside of the game environment, and therefore may fail to maximize revenue generation from the purchase, by users, of virtual items in the online game.